A Good End To a Bad Week
by Natters13
Summary: My first Flack centric fic. The team go out to celebrate Mac's 50th birthday. Involves the CSIs, beer and an OC. FlackxOC please R & R. Rated T for language.


**A/N:** This idea just popped into my head. It's my first Flack centric fic but I have an idea for a sequel. R & R, let me know whether you think it's good or crap.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything to do with CSI:NY, CBS owns everything except Hannah and Olivia.

* * *

Don Flack sighed. He'd had an incredibly long week and it would be another 5 or 6 hours at least until he could climb into bed and get some sleep. They had had to work back to back cases all week and he still had a mountain of paperwork to do. However, it'd have to wait till Monday since today was Mac's 50th birthday and they were all going out for drinks at Sullivan's. Mac had refused to have a party of any kind, much to Stella's annoyance, but they had somehow convinced him to go out for drinks with the team.

"Yo, Flack! Ya ready yet? Stella's starting to get pissed waitin' for ya to get your ass downstairs!" Danny yelled from across the precinct. Don could just about hear Lindsay telling him to shut up.

He looked over his shoulder and they were about 20 meters away from him. He smiled and called back, "Just let me grab my jacket and I'm ready." Flack smirked as Lindsay mutter something along the lines of "Men!" as he neared the couple. She lead the way out onto the busy New York streets and over to the pub across the road.

They approached the booths towards the back of the pub where the team usually sat. Flack knew that they must have been here for at least half an hour because Stella didn't rip his head off for being late as soon as she saw him. Once they had taken their seats the waitress came over and took their order. While they waited they talked mainly about work since they had had very little time to do anything else that week. As soon as the waitress had come back with their drinks Stella spoke up.

"I'd like to propose a toast to Mac. Happy 50th birthday, Boss." Agreements of cheers rang out from the booth and Don leaned over to Adam, who was sat next to him, "Exactly how many drinks has Stella had already?" he asked the lab tech turned CSI.

"This'll be her fourth beer. She drank at least half a pitcher before you came. It didn't help that we refilled he glass every time she put it down empty. We thought it'd be best if she was slightly tipsy before you got here then she wouldn't have a go at you."

"Thanks, man."

"So, Mac, how does it feel to hit the big 50?" Marty asked from down the far end of the table.

Everyone chuckled at this. "Not that different from 49 to be honest with you. Except my neighbours seem to see me with new respect now that I'm an old man." Mac smiled to himself, all of them looked so confused. "The two girls that live next to me are at NYU."

Stella had a look of complete concentration on her face. "They've got weird accents, haven't they?"

Mac laughed. "That's because they're from England Stel."

"Oh, okay." Stella turned round and started talking to Sid about God knows what.

After about an hour of chatting, Flack stood up and declared that he needed a leak. Luckily for him, both Stella and Lindsay were far too drunk to tell him off at his choice of vocabulary. On the way back from the toilets he saw a young woman with long, dark brown hair that had a slight curl to it enter the pub. Don watched her walk across to the bar, sit down and wait for the bartender to notice her so she could order a drink. He looked back towards the booth where his co workers sat; all except Mac, Hawkes and Adam were drunk. Both Hawkes and Adam were on call tonight and you could never tell whether Mac was drunk or not. He made his mind up and started to walk.

Flack slid onto the barstool next to this mystery brunette. He could swear that he had never seen her here before and since Sullivan's clientele mainly consisted of NYPD servicemen and women he recognized most people here from the precinct. She turned to look at him and he saw that she had dark brown eyes that seemed bottomless behind a pair of square black rimmed glasses. She smiled at him. He smiled and held out a hand, "I'm Don Flack."

"Nice to meet you Don, I'm Hannah Lemmon." She replied in a perfect British accent as she shook his hand.

"What can I get you?" The Bartender announced.

"I'll have a beer and she'll have…"

"Just a beer thanks."

"Okay, two beers coming up."

"So, Hannah, I can tell you're not from this side of the pond. How long've you been in New York?" Don asked after they had been handed their beers.

"I've lived here on and off for about 3 years."

"On and off?"

Hannah smiled people always asked her questions like these when they first meet her. "I'm studying for my degree at NYU. I'm studying Criminal Investigations and Nursing."

"That's a lot of work. Why are you doing 2 degrees?" Flack was puzzled as to why anyone would want to do so much work voluntarily.

"It is a lot of work but I enjoy it. I have no idea which job I want to do so I decided to do both degrees and put that decision off until the last minute. My family has been really supportive of my decisions and they give me all the money I need. They pay my tuition, rent, living expenses since it'd be really hard for me to have a job, do all my studying and be able to have some down time and it's not like we're strapped for cash."

While as had been talking, Don had noticed that Hannah had her ears triple pierced, her right ear had also been top pierced and she had a nose stud. When she moved her hands as she spoke he had also seen a tattoo of what appeared to be a star on her left wrist, partially hidden by her watch. As the topic of conversation shifted to him, he told her about his family and when he mentioned his job she seemed extremely interested.

They had been sitting there talking for nearly an hour without realising it when Mac came over.

"Flack, there you are. We were starting to worry about you."

"Aww, thanks. Are they really that incoherent that you had to get away before you lost your mind?"

Mac laughed, "Yes. They're all off their faces. Stella, Sid and Marty keep retelling hilarious stories, Danny and Lindsay are getting a bit too touchy feely for a public place and Hawkes and Adam can't stop laughing at the others."

"I'm sorry I missed it then!"

"Don't worry. Adam and Hawkes have got loads of videos on their phones. I think Hawkes might have one of Stella when she fell off her chair."

They both burst out laughing. It was only when they stopped that Mac noticed the woman Flack had been talking to. "Hannah? What are you doing here?"

"Mac! I just wanted to give you your birthday present before I leave tomorrow." Hannah replied while standing up to give Mac a hug.

"Oh that's right. Is it you cousin's or your brother's wedding?"

"It's my cousin's and I'm Maid of Honour so I've had my mum and aunts, even my grandma's been on the phone to me this week, telling me that I cannot under any circumstances miss my flight etc. To be honest with you I can't wait until it's over and I can get back to normal life." Hannah stated. "Anyway, here's your present. It's from me and Olivia. I know it's not much but we had no idea what to get you and if we asked you'd say we weren't to buy you anything. We couldn't let you turn 50 without giving you a present!"

Flack laughed, most people would be far too scared of Mac to tease him too much and rightly so, he certainly wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of the ex-marine's temper, but here was this young girl who was still at university and she was teasing him about his attitude towards his birthday. Don wasn't sure whether she knew about what had happened to Claire or not but he decided to subtly question her about it once Mac left.

Mac pulled a bottle of very expensive looking wine out of a gift bag. "Thank you. I'll save it and I might invite you and Olivia round to try it with me when you get back. Where is she anyway? I thought she would jump at the chance to come to a pub." He said with a smile and Hannah laughed.

"Yes she would that's true but then she'd sulk when she got here since she's still underage. She doesn't turn 21 for another 4 months. She's back at the flat packing. As usual she left it until the last minute but since she's not family or in the wedding party I don't think my grandmother would flay her alive if she misses her flight."

"Oh, well give your family my best and try not to let them get you down this week. You'll be back here in no time."

"Thanks Mac. That's partly why she agreed to come. To protect me from the narrow minded females in my mum's family. Also she's known Jen since we were 7."

Mac smiled, when he had started to get to know his neighbours better a couple of months ago, he had heard many stories about her family. "Anyway, I hope the wedding goes okay. I'd better get back to make sure that they're all behaving themselves and are all semi-conscious at least. Oh and Don, in case you were wondering it was Hannah I was talking about earlier." Then with a smile and a nod to both of them he disappeared back into the crowds.

Don turned back towards Hannah and she was smiling, "What did he say about me then?"

"Not much. He just said that his neighbours saw him with new respect now that he's an old man."

Hannah laughed, "Actually it was Olivia that said he was an old man. 50 still seems young to me since my dad turns 65 next year."

"If you don't mind me asking, what did you mean when you and Mac where talking about your family?" Flack questioned.

"It's fine. My dad and older brothers are all really supportive of me going to university and getting a job to support myself so I don't rely on my parents for the rest of my life. My mum and her side of the family are a different story. They all want me to be happy but they don't think a woman should work. According to them, all a woman needs to do is marry young, and to a preferably wealthy man, and have children," explained Hannah, she had told so may people this story so many times that it seemed to come as second nature to her.

"They want you to get married at 21?"

"Well before I turn 25 at the latest they say. My cousin's who's getting married this week is 22 but she hasn't gone to uni. I'm the only woman in my family to ever go to university."

"Wow, that's some accomplishment. I only went to university on an ice hockey scholarship."

"So, how do you and Mac know each other? You said you were a homicide detective and I know he's head of the Crime Lab."

"Well, we tend to be the first to arrive at a scene and then we call in the CSIs and I'm really good mates with Danny and Hawkes so I used to hang out with them a lot and got to know the others better as well."

"Oh okay. I suppose it's a good idea to know and trust the people that have your back, isn't it? When Mac told me what had happened to his wife I was so surprised that something like that would happen to him. He's always been so nice to us, especially when we first moved into the building. I guess bad things really do happen to good people. Did you know Claire?"

"Yeah, a little. I'd met her a couple of times. She always used to bring us food and coffee when we had to pull a double."

There was a slight pause in their conversation. Hannah was the first to speak again. "Anyway I have to get going, my flight is at 10.15 tomorrow morning and I want to double check my suitcase again tonight."

"Okay. Erm… I was wondering if I could call you sometime and ask you out on a date?" Flack asked hopefully. He didn't usually ask for women's numbers as more often than not he'd put his moves on and they'd end up at one of their apartments but he didn't seem to want to rush into anything with her.

Hannah smiled and pulled a pen out of her bag and pulled a napkin toward her, "Sure. I'll give you my mobile number 'cause I've never been able to remember my home number."

"Thanks. I'll call you sometime this week; it'll give you an excuse to get away from your family for a bit." They laughed.

"That'd be great. I'll see you, Don." Hannah smiled and with a quick kiss on his cheek she walked out the pub. Flack was still smiling when he sat down back in booth with his co workers. The sight that met his eyes wasn't a pleasant one.

Both Danny and Lindsay were far too preoccupied with the other's lips to notice him. Stella and Sid wouldn't stop laughing at the couple and Marty looked like he was about to pass out. Mac appeared a lot happier than Don had ever seen him in the lab. He was smiling and laughing openly at his employees so Flack guessed this was Mac Taylor drunk. Adam and Hawkes seemed incapable of speech at the moment because they couldn't stop laughing at the others.

"Hey… Flack…You finally…decided… to grace us with…your company?" Hawkes asked while trying to catch his breath.

"Can't blame you. If I'd found a beautiful woman I wouldn't want to sit with this lot." Adam stated smirking as he cast another look round the table.

"I did actually. Her name's Hannah and she's from England and studying at NYU." Flack said.

"Yeah, we could see you two talking once the crowds started to thin and Mac told us her name and that she lives next door to him. You know what that means, right? No messing around when you're at her place." Hawkes teased and he and Adam dissolved back into laughter. Don shook his head and looked at Mac, he was laughing at Marty who had slid off his chair and he either didn't want to get up or he couldn't without help.

He stood up and said that he was going home to catch up on all the sleep he'd missed this week. "Can you take Danny and Lindsay home since your building is near theirs and I don't fancy letting them get a cab home, do you?" Mac said and Flack nodded. Nothing they did seemed to get the couple's attentions. It wasn't until a seriously pissed Stella grabbed a half full beer pitcher and tipped it over their heads that they looked up.

Danny looked at her and said "What the fuck was that for?!?" But Stella just sat back in her chair and laughed. Mac quickly intervened, "We've been trying to get your attention for the past 5 minutes. Don's going to take you two home so you can continue this in private." All sober members of the party laughed, Stella and Sid looked confused; Danny and Lindsay looked slightly embarrassed but they were far too drunk to comprehend anything more than the fact that they could have sex soon without anyone to ruin it; and Marty was passed out with his head resting on the table.

Once they had said goodbye and Danny and Lindsay had made it to the car on very shaky legs, Don made sure that one of them sat in the front with him; he didn't want to have to separate them again. He walked up to their apartment with them so he could unlock the door for them. Finally he got back to his place and slid into bed in only his boxers. He was too tired to do anything else.

Just as he was about to drift off a thought floated through his head: _Maybe tonight wasn't so bad after all._


End file.
